One of the best features of Android is its open ecosystem. Any manufacturer can come around and use this amazing OS or even tinker around to improve it (or mess things up). Sadly, manufacturers are not always great at what they do, and depending on your preferences, you might want to get rid of those stock UIs. Sony Ericsson is very conscious of this and openly supports the development community behind Android.

The CyanogenMod team has just announced that they will be supporting the whole Xperia line very soon. There are not many ROMs available for such devices, so this comes as great news to Sony Ericsson Xperia owners. As a response to this announcement from CyanogenMod, and all the hype that this is getting, Sony Ericsson decided to go ahead and post an article demonstrating their support towards the independent Android developing community.

Sony Ericsson mentions that they “firmly believe in the openness of Android” and “are really impressed by the huge activity shown in [their] products.” This is why they have supported such projects. Not only by providing bootloader unlocking and kernel building guides, but by actually helping developers.

By being supportive and open, we hope to both learn from the open community and also share knowledge when that is possible. Karl-Johan DahlstrÃ¶mHead of Developer Relations, Sony Ericsson

Karl-Johan DahlstrÃ¶m (pictured above with an Xperia Arc sporting CyanogenMod 7) is the Head of Developer Relations and speaks of the work Sony Ercisson has been doing with the FreeXperia team (a group of developers). While Sony Ericsson emphasizes that unlocking a bootloader and installing custom ROMs can void your warranty, they understand that this is an important part of the Android ecosystem and are willing to help developers with support and information. Not only that, but Sony Ericsson has actually provided developers with 20 Xperia devices.

A few proprietary solutions needed to be explained and we helped them with that. This included the camera, where we provided debugged and rebuilt camera library binaries, which we will soon make available on Developer World under a special EULA license. We also supported the group with approximately 20 devices to make their work easier.Karl-Johan DahlstrÃ¶mHead of Developer Relations, Sony Ericsson

Manufacturers should know that the developers cannot be stopped. Not only because of their great potential, but because custom ROMs are at a huge demand in the Android community. A great device also includes a great UI. Let’s face it: sometimes manufacturers make great hardware, but the software doesn’t work well with it (or we might just not like it).

This is a great move on Sony Ericsson’s part. Unlike other manufacturers who try to fight off developers, Sony Ericsson has decided to support them in order to further improve the overall Android ecosystem. The company has been improving their devices this year, which was great, but bringing support to the development community just wins our hearts.

We tip our hats to Sony Ericsson. Timescape is great, but it’s not for everybody. Those looking for something different will soon be able to get CyanogenMod on Xperia devices, so get ready for some custom ROM action! What do you guys think? Should other manufacturers follow Sony Ericsson’s lead? Are you more likely to buy an Xperia device now?

Hello, I am Edgar Cervantes. I am an avid Android fan, and keeping myself updated on the topic is part of my daily life. I will always work hard to give the best of me to our community of Android enthusiasts, and I am very honored to be part of this ship. Hopefully we can all enjoy sharing our knowledge and opinions!

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ChaosKiller

Don’t forget that SE is following Samsung’s lead. They did it before with the Galaxy S II.

heeros

yea, Samsung definitely made the first step here. They might not have been quite as open about their proprietary code/libraries, but they did provide a free device prior to release (by at least a week if I remember correctly) for CM to start working on it.

This is a very good second step though, and it’s more of an active support than Samsungs passive approach (here, have a phone, work it out).

Of course, I don’t know everything samsung did for CM, but you’d think if they did more they’d want to flaunt it.

No not the same Sony at all. They are separate independent opperations.
That being said I fully support Sonys Geohot actions and wish they would put the smack down more often but thats another topic entirely.

http://verboze.net verboze

HAHAHAHA, great PR stunt Sony, great PR stunt. AOSP has been around for the last three years, now, “unlike other manufacturers”, Sony has taken the lead on opening their devices to developers, before HTC, before Samsung. I for one will still stand behind companies like HTC, who do not embrace openness only when it suits them but appear to genuinely care about it

Nathan

For this we tip our hat to u and if u can make a beast headsets I will have no problem buying it from you. :)

Moisen

i looking rigth now at buying the SE Arc because of this good news, but i living i denmark and we have a phone company named 3, they are very happy to brand devices, will it be possible to flash a brande device?